‘The Hunger Games’ Finds Its District One Tributes

The cast of Gary Ross’ cinematic adaptation of The Hunger Games continues to grow as more and more young stars and starlets sign on to play male and female “tributes” to the titular event – a Battle Royale-style competition that pits adolescents against one another in a death match meant to demonstrate the ruling government’s power.

Newcomer Jake Quaid (Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan’s son) and TV actress Leven Rambin (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) are the latest additions to the Hunger Games cast, and will play the roles of District One “tributes” Marvel and Glimmer, respectively.

As can be seen on the Hunger GamesFacebook page, three of the twelve “tribute” pairs have now been cast for the film. To clarify (for those not familiar with Suzanne Collins’ original novel): the story takes place in a futuristic version of North America, now called Panem, which is divided up into districts. A teenage boy and girl from each district are selected and required to participate in the annual Hunger Games – under penalty of death, essentially.

Liam Hemsworth (brother of Thor‘s Chris Hemsworth) will also appear in the film as Gale Hawthorne, a good friend of Katniss, and (sort of) Peeta’s competition for her romantic interest. Elizabeth Banks is currently in talks to play the role of Effie Trinket, escort for the District 12 “tributes.”

Ross took a fair amount of flack from a number of Hunger Games fans for casting Lawrence as Katniss, due primarily to her appearance not matching Collins’ original description of the character. The author has since publicly voiced her approval of Lawrence in the role, and the rest of the casting done on the film so far has been quite true to the source material. Okay, so maybe Hemsworth doesn’t match the description of Gale in the Hunger Games book either, but the character is supposed to look similar to Katniss – so, with Lawrence playing that role, the casting of Hemsworth is more fitting. Moving on…

Production on The Hunger Games will begin in the near future, and with talents like Ross (Seabiscuit) and screenwriter Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) working behind the scenes, I think it could turn out to be a pretty solid picture. How about you?